What's in a Name? Cape May

View full sizeStaff photo by Kelly RoncaceA view of the Cape May Lighthouse from the nearby sand dunes.

With pristine homes, unique shops and sandy beaches, the Cape May of today is much different than the land that was first visited by Sir Henry Hudson in the early 1600s.

In those early days, the peninsula was barren, only occupied by Lenni Lenape Indians.

Many explorers traveled around the cape, but how did it get it’s name?

According to “The First Resort” published in 2009 by author and researcher Ben Miller, Capt. Cornelius Jacobson Mey, a Dutch sailor who initially explored the area in 1621, fell in love with the area, especially the climate, and chose to name the peninsula after himself.

“He’s the one who named it,” said Susan Krysiak, communications manager for Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities.

Miller wrote that the name was transcribed to charts, maps and other documents, but the “e” was mistaken for an “a” almost immediately, leading to the land being called Cape May.

Harry C. Bellangy, president and historian of The Greater Cape May Historical Society, said he’s not certain when the spelling changed from “Mey” to “May,” but believes it could have stemmed from the pronunciation.

“It could have been a case of people saying ‘Mey’ and it sounded like ‘May’ so it just took on that spelling,” Bellangy said.

And while some accounts say Mey disembarked his ship to explore the peninsula on foot, Bellangy said the explorer’s ship actually ran aground in the Delaware Bay.

“He never actually set foot on Cape May, but claimed it for Holland just about 400 years ago,” he said.

Mey was the most prominent of several explorers who sailed to the area after Hudson’s discovery, which occurred more than 10 years before the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower, according to Miller’s book.

Mey’s visit actually occurred the same year as the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Mass.